Morning journal and courier., 1887-03-01
SOME OF THE FEATURES


 Copies Now Being Delivered.
 A look through this history of New Haven, volume of 663 pages, shows that it com pines the most recent method in which history is divided into dictinct but related parts each of which is treated by writer specially qualified by his natural endowments and his habits of life for his particular de- partment of the work. It is not depreciatory of the merits of the editor of this history to say that neither he nor any other one person working alone could have written so valuable a book; but we are free to say that ti has a unity which was hardly to be expected in a work performed by an association, compris- ing if we have counted correctly more than twenty different writers. The editor in his preface intimates that he has sometimes made suggestions restraining excursiveness and preventing repetition. His suggestions must have been very powerful or his corps of writers very docile; for little repetition or undue prolixity has been discovered by us in cursor yexamination of the book. On the whole, we CO., 6rmed in the opinion that the associational is an improvement up- on the older method of writing history in which single individual wrestled with succession of topics unaided by those who having spent lifetime in some particular field, knew just what to say and how to say it.
 We do not know who assigned the differ ent parts to the different writers, but if the editor did it, he took to himself those parts which he by his previous studies in the his tory of the old colony of New Haven was pe- culiarly qualified to write. Few persons, if any, could have condensed into so small space so much of the early ecclesiastical his tory of New Haven as he has done in the chapter on churches and clergymen. The quarrel between the 'told lights" and the thew lights" in which ''town-born" men se- ceded from the First church and built the ''Blue Meeting House" shows that there were then, as there are now, new departures in theology. Judge Lynde Harrison has written we'll the history of the bench and bar in one chapter and in another chapter the history of political par ties. We do not know the man who could have done it better. The history of the prac tice of medicine and surgery was very prop erly committed to three medical men repre- senting three different schools of medical science. Francis Bacon, M. D., representing the oldest of these schools, writes many wise and witty things about the physicians of the olden times. Paul c. Skiff tells of the rise ia popular favor of the disciples of Hahne- mann. the first of whom to establish himself in New Haven was Dr. Charles H. Skiff. Since 1S43, when this first practi- tioner of homeopathy removed to New Haven, that school of practitioners has in creased till they are now twenty-five in num- Der. Dr. George Andrews writes the history of the eclectic school, which, beginning in New Haven at an earlier date than that of Hahnemann, has not equalled it in rapidity of growth in the popular favor. The history of the fire department by Chief Hendrick is very interesting as is also the history of military organizations by Gen. Stephen R. Smith, We think that pamphlet edition of the military chapter might be easily sold he of fIa of the other contributors besides the editor are Wm. L. Kingsley, who writes on the history of Yale college; Addison Van Name who discourses of the libraries of New Ha- ven, but finds only meagre materials for his chapter when he goes outside of the college campus; Professor Hoppin, who has for his theme the fine arts in New Haven, theme on which no one is better qualified to write than professor in the Yale School of Fine Arts. The harbor and wharves is the theme of chapter by Captain Charles H. Townsend, in which he tells what Congress has done for the improvement of our harbor, and ~what further ought in his judgment, to be done for the benefit of the commercial interests of the city, and of the whole sea coast in the neighborhood of Long Island Sound. Charles Atwater has his tory of the banks of the city, which will in terest all who are connected with those in- stitutions as officers, stockholders or deposi-
 
 of 8 history of railroads touching New Haven, but it begins back at the time when the only public conveyance between New Haven and Hartford the wagon which ran once month between the two places and omitted it's trips during the win ' ter. George D. Watrous, son of the presi- ! dent of the Consolidated road, is the author I of this curious piece of curious literature. | Henry Howe, whose historical collections of | Ohio and other States are well | known, contributes to this volume an article \ on the trees and parks of the city, the sub I stance of which he says has already appeared | in the columns of one of the city dailies. A \ chapter by Professor Brewer, president of | the board of health, brings to view the | sanitary advantages which the city \ possesses by reason of it's soil | and situation, and inculcates that con- comes contagion. The municipal history | is necessarily less lively than some other ! chapters but Professor Levermore, who when he wrote it was a citizen of New Haven though he is now resident in California, has sprinkled it with the spice which his spright- ly mind always furnishes in abundance This chapter contains two interesting sub- divisions written by Henry Peck; one on the city seal and flag, and the other on the police department. Thomas R. Trowbridge, jr., has a chapter on commerce, which relates the history of the shipping business from the time of Governor Eaton and the "Great Shipp" in which Lamberton and Turner lost their lives, to the present day. Nine hun dred copies of the work at $15 each have been subscribed for. A fine steel engraving | of Hon. James Hillhouse forms the frontis- | piece of the volume. It is accompanied by the l words: 'The city of elms honors the man who planted it's elms." The illustrations, in l addition to one hundred and forty-five DOT traits accompanying biographical sketches, l are as follows: Map of New Haven in 1641; 1 exterior of meeting house; interior of meet ing house; map of New Haven in 1724; map of the town of New Haven, with all the | buildings, in 1748; map of New Haven dur ing the war of the revolution; Wooster | house; Roger Sherman's house on Chapel | street; Chapel street in 17S5; Humphrey | Street Congregational church; President | Dwight's house in 1795; Conscript camp Grapevine Point) map of New Haven har- | Dor; soldiers monument; the city seal and | flag; county court house and City Hall; resi- | dence of G. A. Basserman; the rector or | presidents house; L. Candee & Co.,. rubber | boot and shoe works; first home of the New | Haven orphan asylum.
 New York Physicians. Of vor